Lachlan Rule

Growing up in and around Tasmania’s wild places instilled in me a sense of responsibility for their protection, and for the preservation of the natural systems that sustain us more broadly. Marching against logging in the Florentine Valley, and against the Tamar Valley pulp mill through Hobart’s CBD, taught me the power of collective action and our individual responsibility to be a participant in that action.

Over the course of my early career, working with activist and advocacy groups, I came to see climate change as the greatest single threat to the natural world. The longer I worked in the climate space, the more I understood that a rapid transition to renewable energy was both essential and possible, and that this shift required social and economic change too. So long as people viewed renewable energy as a threat to their livelihoods, we were never going to move quickly enough. This drove my work planning just transitions in coal communities in Australia and in de-industrialising regions with the New Zealand Government.

These experiences, plus a passion for spreadsheets, led me to where I am today: principal of a small consulting firm at the cutting edge of energy and climate policy in Australia. We advise Commonwealth, state and local governments, market operators and private firms on how to deliver a renewable transition that works for everyone.

People fall into the trap of believing climate change is one big, insurmountable problem. I have come to see it as thousands of small problems, each of which can be solved.

This Fellowship is about tackling one of those problems: extending the benefits of the renewable transition to the millions of Australians who are currently locked out. I want to explore approaches that can make renewable energy more accessible and ensure the transition delivers meaningful benefits for communities across Australia.